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An attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council pledged the organization will continue to fight for restrictions on bisphenol A after a judge ruled Friday that the chemical be removed from California's list of reproductive toxicants. "There will be further opportunities to argue the issues," said the attorney, Avinash Kar, adding that the ruling is only a temporary setback.

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State officials in California officially labeled bisphenol A as a reproductive toxicant last week under Proposition 65, which publishes lists of chemicals that cause birth defects or cancer and requires products containing them to carry warning labels.

The California-based Natural Resources Defense Council has petitioned the state's Environmental Protection Agency to label bisphenol A as a reproductive toxicant and place it on a list of suspect chemicals that fall under a state consumer-safety law.

California announced that it intends to deem bisphenol-A a reproductive hazard and, under a state law known as Prop. 65, will require consumer products that contain a certain level of the chemical to carry warnings about its effects on reproductive hormones.

The Suffolk County, N.Y., Legislature voted to impose a ban on receipts coated with bisphenol-A, which supporters believe to cause cancer, affect reproductive health and alter immune systems. The ban follows a similar one passed by the county in 2009, which banned BPA from being used in baby bottles and sippy cups.

The National Institutes of Health will allot $30 million to investigate bisphenol A, or BPA, with new research focusing on low-dose exposures to the chemical and how it affects behavior, obesity, diabetes, reproductive disorders, asthma, cardiovascular diseases and cancers. The Food and Drug Administration will release its own report in November.